Dexter Is Dead

Horrible book, don't bother, ruins the series

As I say in the title - horrid book, not worth the money , destroys all the characters who you've grown to enjoy and destroys the entire series. Don't waste your money or your time.

Stop reading at this moment if for some reason that didn't convince you not to read this book as I'm going full spoilers because this book sucks and it doesn't deserve to be preserved.

As I said in my review of Dexter's Final Cut- Jeff Lindsay seemed to write this book (and the previous) as if he had no interest in doing this and was forced to by his publisher so he decided to destroyed all the characters you have grown to care about in this series. So since he didn't care I no longer care for him. Basically he seemed to no longer care for his fans and WHY he became famous.

So shall we hit it hard right now? EVERYONE dies- okay only Vince Masuka & Angel Batista live [and those who have read this book shouting about Deb and the kids, I'll explain that too in a little bit]. Yep that's right, between book 7 and book 8 every character dies - Rita, Dexter's brother Brian, Det. Anderson, and of course DEXTER! And yes, though he didn't write it, Deb, Astor, Cody, and both babies-- how you say? He didn't write that you say- well basically he did but again I'll explain in just a moment.

So let's see...How does this book ruin the series? Well as if Dexter wasn't beyond dumb in the previous book, destroying his 'smart' character in the majority of the books- here he's just plain stupid and can't seem to use his head ever. Why? Who knows?! I don’t want to write a synopsis of this whole thing, I’ll just cover some low-lights…

We find Dexter in a holding facility, he spends weeks in there without seeing anyone and is there illegally. This tries to set-up how it’s Dexter against the world. Well except for the fact that Det. Anderson is the most incompetent cop ever and suddenly despite all the over-whelming evidence against Dexter having committed any of these murders – he’s guilty by the ENTIRE police force eyes, no question, including Deb – who apparently has just been waiting for the right moment to get rid of Dexter from her life?!

Anyhow, Dexter gets out of fake jail via a his high-priced power attorney thanks to brother dearest Brian. We later find out Brian has lots of money due to stealing from a drug cartel boss and trying to make a run for it. And some how, despite Brian living on his own, never getting caught for anything, he knows nothing of the internet and credit cards and tracing things – this cause all sorts of probs for Dexter- as Brian affords everything thanks to robbing a drug cartel. Now they too wanna kill Dexter due to association. But really why would that matter when obviously every level of the Miami police department and state government ignore all facts and tell a forensic scientist, Vince, that despite all his evidence and his own word and proof that Det. Anderson is lying, faking things, and planting evidence, to just go away and not worry about the biggest case in their recent history was a giant fraud.

So as long as you accept all that, then you’ll be fine with Dexter suddenly becoming dumb and forgetting that also on the computer, still backed up in the cloud, is the evidence needed to prove that he is innocent- you know the info from the assistant to the leading lady [both who were murdered by the same guy, who also killed Rita and was trying to rape Astor]. She had proof that Dexter didn’t murder her, as was told by Astor in the previous book—I mean why would anyone think to bring that up right? Good thing the author didn’t. Also a good thing that Dexter, who has been driven by his Dark passenger for all previous 7 books, ignores it so much that the dark passenger is NEVER mentioned except for the torture session. Yep this all-guiding spirit that Dexter has relied on, disappears from this book and is just mentioned a few times in passing except for one scene. Dexter fails to notice all these things he would always notice before. He suddenly can’t stand his kids, Deb or anyone else it seems. He fails to do so with so many obvious things it almost becomes laughable. It would be if it weren’t for the fact that this means every other character is having the same problem and no one is doing a damn thing they normally would. This just keeps causing problems and stupid choices that characters almost never made in the previous books that you begin to wonder if Lindsay ever read any of the other books he wrote. But how about we just skip to the end where everyone dies shall we?

So the short version is bad guy takes Dexter’s kids and he needs to get them back. He kills his bad lawyer and tortures a bad guy to find out where the bigger bad guy is. He convinces Deb to join Brian and they go to a yacht that the bad guy is on. But obviously Deb is now to distraught and forget ALL her police training and all her previous dealing with drug lords in Miami so when they are on the boat she just runs into the room that has her kid. She also forgets her anger, the reason she contacted Dexter, and stops him from killing the people she WANTED him to kill just moments before?! In doing so of course this starts the domino effect of Brian getting killed, but allowing big bad guy to survive and mostly kill Dexter – who during all this goes fully dumb and reverts to being a 2 year old (no really that is what happens to him mentally) and Deb comes back to kill the bad guy. But Dexter now being two doesn’t remember fire makes bombs explode and wants to place a bomb to destroy the ship. – Now follow along folks who read the book as this is where EVERYONE dies, including Deb and all the kids—so Deb flees to Dexter’s boat where we assume the kids are all safe. Dexter sets a bomb to go off, but because he’s bleeding to death he sees no reason for him to try to escape. He some how manages to drop the mega bomb onto the fuel tank of the SUPER YACHT – ie multi-story, so must have mega fuel tanks. Dexter finds a way to the top of the boat to throw himself over the side railing into the water. He then drowns, plain and simple, he sinks to the bottom and is happy with that. BUT before he did, he waved Deb and his boat over to save him. And that’s how the book ends.

But here’s why everyone dies—Deb and the kids wouldn’t have known Dexter set a megabomb to go off on the fuel tanks. Deb and the kids would want to rescue Dexter, which means they’d bring their boat over to the mega yacht to get close enough to try and get Dexter out of the water. And with the bomb going off, the explosion from the bomb and fuel tanks would be big enough to damage, if not destroy Dexter’s boat to the point it would sink and everyone would die. That’s right, Lindsay killed Deb and the kids too!

So he went all George RR Martin without any pleasure.

Sucks! Absolutely sucks!

If you are a glutton for punishment, feel free to read his version, but let me save you the pain and money. Walk away now. Go find another book.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

Dexter is Dead

As an avid listener to the audio story of Dexter I finally got round to finishing the last book and then this book. I also watched the TV series and if I'm honest the ending in the book was better as we know that's the end. It was a sopranos style ending I suppose but we know that's it.

Enjoyable audio series. Now what can I listen to?

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Dexter - dead ?

Sadly a rather disappointing last novel, the story was a little forced. However the end delivered in spades - as an avid fan still worth a read to get to the last chapter.
Lovely to hear the author read it too, a real treat.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

I feel as exhausted as Dexter

I have plowed through all 8 of this series and must admit to really enjoying the selfishness/one mindedness of Dexter - his dedication to himself is fascinating and I have been surprised at myself as I always thought I was a kind, thoughtful, gentle soul - yet I could feel myself encouraging him in his horridness!
I read with interest other reviews and feel I want to disagree with the opinion that the last book is not up to Jeff Lindsay's standard & he just wanted the thing tied up and finished. As he & Brian (finally herocally) ventured forth to save the kids, & as "the boys" breathed their last, all I was left with was sincere sympathy for caustic Debra - lumbered totally with those 4 children! Now she HAS her work cut out.
Good story - also enjoyed the TV show which was same and different. Thank you Mr. Lindsay.

Disappointed

I’ve really enjoyed the previous Dexter books and I loved the TV series, but this is a waffle-fest. It takes forever to get to the action, or even to get to the point!
This book gives you one thing though. It confirms that Dexter is a dick.

Waste of a credit.

Does Dexter Die?

I truly wish Jeff Lindsay hadn't killed Dexter off. I'm sure J. L. had to do as Dexter told him. Although secretly, and as much as I love/hate Debra, her bull doggedness would have saved her step brother.... I love Devilishly Delicious Dexter!

average compared to the rest

I have enjoyed all the Dexter series, but this one for me was a little weak on the story line. narrator again is brilliant.

Different Dexter

Mostly listen over quite a while on my Amazon Dot.. However, the more I heard the more I wanted to. Good story although Dex's dark passenger didn't appear much and it wasn't up to his normal gory best.

Better than the one before

This one has more action in it, feels more like a Dexter story than the last one. Worth listening to.

A disappointing end

I've really enjoyed all the early books but the last two - not so much. I've just listened to them all again and maybe noticed it more this time. The portrait of women is very limited, either aggressive or unable to string a sentence together. Also dexter goes from not being interested in sex to very interested. It feels like the author has been advised to spice it up. There's also a lot of internal dialogue - which gets very boring and again a change from earlier books - it feels like padding. I think that the last two books should have been one. Maybe that's why it ended like it did.